You’d think that by being Sidney Crosby and trying to sell a house you’d be able to keep your hockey life out of that whole equation. Not so fast, friends.

According to Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Crosby’s efforts to sell his house to Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse had to be cleared by the NHL to make sure that their sale agreement didn’t constitute a violation of the salary cap. The issue there being that Crosby was selling an obviously high priced piece of property to a team executive and if the price of the home was over inflated or too much of a bargain, it could’ve been seen as a way of dancing around the salary cap.

Think about it, Sid sells the house for a big price, the team president has to give him more money or vice versa. Sounds goofy, but it makes sense. Imagine that salary cap penalty though, it’d be like playing a game of Monopoly in real life.

Instead, Crosby sold the home to Morehouse for a measly $2.4 million, just $100,000 more than he paid for it when he bought it. Good thing we didn’t have to get the kids from CapGeek.com involved in the real estate business on this one.

Matt Duchene will probably be compared to John Tavares for the rest of his NHL career.

That’s the nature of the beast when it comes to year-by-year draft debates. While the New York Islanders took Tavares with the first pick of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Duchene shot up the ranks to become the third pick – and second forward/center – to be chosen when Colorado nabbed him.

From that day forward, Duchene and Tavares will be linked like Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin and many other draft day pairings. (I’m guess that no one will waste much time with the Alexandre Daigle-Chris Pronger debate, though.)

Two very different centers with remarkably similar results

If there’s one thing that distinguishes Duchene – at least in my mind – it’s his blazing speed. Those dynamic wheels were on display during the 2011 NHL All-Star Game when Nicklas Lidstrom fed him with a beautiful lead pass as Duchene scored a downright pretty breakaway goal.

On the other hand, Tavares is known for producing impressive offense despite a lack of high-end skating ability. He has a knack for finding ways to score goals with his high hockey IQ, great hands and overall imagination.

Despite key distinctions, the two forwards produce remarkably similar results. Duchene has a slight edge in overall points (51 goals, 122 points) while Tavares scored a couple extra goals (53 goals, 121 points). With those nearly identical numbers in mind, Duchene wants other figures to be in line: their second contract salaries. That would mean something in the range of Tavares’ six-year, $33 million deal.

“If I take care of business, that’s a reward. That’s not something that you aim for. It’s not a destination. It’s a byproduct,” he said matter of factly.

(snip)

“J.T. and I are pretty close. I didn’t talk to J.T. about it, but I talked to our agent, Pat Brisson, about it, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen right after he signed, whether it was going to be potentially something for me, but I didn’t really care either way,” Duchene said. “I love playing the game and the money is obviously nice, but I’ve never let that be a distraction for me. Not once. I’m not worried about it whatsoever.”

The Tavares contract might be a lofty comparison, but it could be worse

For those who believe that Duchene doesn’t have the same high-end potential as Tavares, $5.5 million per year might seem like a scary figure. To some extent, it is.

That being said, the Avalanche would be better off if Brisson and Duchene use Tavares as a comparable rather than one of Duchene’s teammates. If the Duchene camp takes the approach that Drew Doughty’s did with Anze Kopitar in regards to Paul Stastny’s $6.6 million per year rate, then cash-conscious Colorado could have reason for concern.

***

Interestingly enough, both the Avalanche and Islanders have reason to believe that 2011-12 will be far different than cellar-dwelling seasons in 10-11. Colorado might want to follow the Isles’ lead in wrapping up their budding star center, although the Avs’ situation isn’t as simple because of certain commitments.

Either way, Duchene will get his numbers – both in points and salary – so the big question for each concern is “How much?”

In the current NHL, teams that spend a bit too much in the offseason and find their salary cap situation to be problematic. The Blackhawks had that problem last summer and this time around it was the Buffalo Sabres who found themselves above the fold after owner Terry Pegula shelled out the big bucks to get Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino into town.

Rather than do things the way Chicago did it by dealing away valuable players making slightly unmanageable salaries, the Sabres took the route most traveled by teams looking to get under the cap: Sending guys to the AHL.

Ales Kotalik and Shaone Morrisonn, making a combined $5.075 million against the salary cap, will be starting their seasons in Rochester with the Americans rather than in Buffalo with the Sabres. It’s all because their salaries are a bit too much for the Sabres to manage. Kotalik and Morrisonn are both potentially useful players, although not premiere players, and could be a good fit in Buffalo (or anywhere else in need of a part-time scorer or physical defenseman) but their cost to play is too rich for anyone’s blood.

While no one is going to feel bad for guys making $3 million (Kotalik) or $2.075 million (Morrisonn) to play hockey anywhere, being priced out of the NHL is part of the harsh reality of life in the NHL. Players are more than entitled to get whatever an owner wishes to pay them to play, but when their play gets matched or exceeded by players making less money, those are the breaks. Just ask Wade Redden of the New York Rangers about that.

The Rangers gave Redden a monster free agent contract and now he’s likely doomed to stay in Hartford until his deal runs out because his cap hit is obscenely high for the kind of play he brings. Does that make Redden a bad player? Not at all, he’s just not worth it at the cost that comes to the Rangers against the salary cap. Same goes for Chicago and Cristobal Huet.

While this is how life goes in the NHL these days and this is how teams can sidestep financial missteps, there’s just something that feels cheap about being able to cover up financial errors like this. The hopes that teams below the salary floor would be there to absorb those mistakes have, for the most part, not happened. Teams like the Islanders, Coyotes, Jets, and Predators all found alternative ways to go about business without taking on a potentially brutal contract.

Last season the New Jersey Devils ran into cap issues and tried to find a new home for Brian Rolston. Rolston came with a $5.062 million cap hit and for two seasons at that amount, there weren’t any buyers. When this summer rolled around and Rolston was entering the final year of his deal, however, the Islanders happily swooped in and traded for the 38 year-old winger to help bring themselves to the salary floor.

Guys like Morrisonn and Kotalik are in the final year of their contracts and while that can prove to be motivation to earn a new deal, they’ll have to show they can bring it big in the AHL to hopefully get moved to another team that has a need. Having to prove yourself in the AHL when you’re an NHL-caliber player makes the task seem Sisyphus-like when the boulder you’re pushing uphill is a salary that most teams can’t bear to have.

Remember when the Buffalo Sabres were one of the “have-nots” in the world of professional hockey? Only four short summers ago, the Sabres organization was trying to justify the exodus of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. Even though they were coming off two consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances and their first ever President’s Trophy, they were faced with the reality that they simply couldn’t afford two of their best veterans. In the four seasons since Drury and Briere left town, the Sabres haven’t won a single playoff series.

“…it’s so distinctly different than what we’ve done in the past. We’ve had decent resources in the past. Now we have extraordinary resources.”

Different resources have brought about different offseason problems. In the past, the team would have to deal with players who left on their own accord. Nowadays, GM Regier must figure out which player(s) the team can live without as they shed salary to get under the cap. According to the incomparable capgeek.com, the Sabres payroll is sitting at $67.9 million, while the salary cap for next season is only $64.3 million. It doesn’t take a math major to see that GM Regier still has some work to do before the season starts in October.

Conventional wisdom said that the Sabres would simply bury a contract or two in Rochester for the season to get the payroll under the salary cap. Would Shaone Morrison’s $2+ million contract cost him a spot in the NHL? Would Ales Kotalik get moved? Would it be fiscally responsible to waive Brad Boyes’ $4 million contract? These were the types of questions that Regier was expected to answer.

“The first has to be Shaone Morrisonn who had a less than spectacular season with the Sabres last year. Morrisonn had one goal and four assists in 62 games with the Sabres and has one year left at a rate of $2.075 million left on his contract. In his career, Morrisonn has only had one single digit point season when he played a full slate of games and that was last season. Morrisonn has the potential to score 10-15 points and only a handful of goals each season.

While this notion will seem ridiculous, another player that could be moved to clear some cap space could be Jason Pominville and his $5.3 million contract. Pominville does have a modified no-trade clause, which gives Pominville eight teams that he can’t be traded to, which could make moving him slightly difficult. Pominville was an iron man for the Sabres, playing in every game for four seasons for the Sabres until two different injuries sidelined him this season. Pominville played in a total of 73 games this past season and had 22 goals and 30 assists during the season, his lowest point total since the 2005-06 season.”

No matter which player(s) the Sabres trade, it’s important to remember that they won’t be taking much salary back. Since they’re about $3.6 million over the salary cap, even if they traded away Kotalik and Morrisonn, the Sabres would only be able to take back $1.5 million in salary. So even though a trade is better than burying contracts in the AHL, Sabres fans shouldn’t get excited about any potential returns. Think less about “difference makers” and more about prospects and draft picks.

When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, part of their immediate hangover was in having to deal with salary cap problems for the following season. When players like Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Patrick Kane had their bonuses figured into matters, the Blackhawks had over $4 million in bonus overages applied to last season’s cap.

With those overages, the Blackhawks were forced to make a lot of difficult roster decisions and ended up letting go of key Cup-winning players like Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Antti Niemi, and Brent Sopel while paying up big to retain Niklas Hjalmarsson. Without those guys in the lineup last year and having to fill holes with cheaper players from within and via free agency, the Blackhawks finished eighth in the Western Conference and snuck into the playoffs. While they nearly upset the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, they lost in seven games.

This summer, without major bonus overages the Blackhawks have rebuilt the team and made them tougher signing defensemen Sean O’Donnell and Steve Montador as well as tough forwards Dan Carcillo and Jamal Mayers. They also added some solid veteran scoring in Andrew Brunette and retained restricted free agents Michael Frolik and Viktor Stalberg. Suffice to say, things were a bit more enjoyable for GM Stan Bowman and Adam Jahns of The Chicago Sun-Times gets the word from Bowman about how much nicer this summer was than last year as far as team building goes.

Last year, the Hawks had more than $4.1 million of performance bonus overages from their Stanley Cup-winning season counting against the salary cap. This year, it’s significantly less. Bowman said there were about $100,000 worth of bonuses from last season counting against this year’s cap, notably from wingers Michael Frolik and Viktor Stalberg.

‘‘It’s nice to not have that penalty and have the full use of the salary cap at your disposal,’’ Bowman told the Sun-Times on Friday. ‘‘We’re in such a different spot. We’re probably going to go into the year with probably close to $4 million in cap space as well. That’s with a lot of players. . . . We were nowhere near that last year.’’

Frolik was the biggest recipient, Bowman said. He was in the final year of his entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers, who drafted him 10th overall in 2006. Stalberg, a former sixth-round pick who was in the last year of his original two-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, received a bonus for games played.

Dealing with bonuses and the salary cap aren’t the most fun things to do when you’re a NHL general manager and in Bowman’s case he essentially threw whatever he had at 2010 to make sure they won the Stanley Cup. That kind of executive effort will make sure he never has to pay for dinner again in the Windy City, but maintaining a winning team is what he’s there to do. The Blackhawks survived last season and while they didn’t win the Cup, the team’s effort was admirable after all the turnover they had with the roster.

In 2011-2012, they’ll have a lot of the same production players back and filling holes with role players like Montador, O’Donnell, Brunette, and Mayers will make them a tougher team to deal with. In the Western Conference, that sort of play can take you a long way and for Chicago, they’re hoping there’s not as long of a drought between Cup victories as there was the last time.